FINAL SCORE: #10 UMass 4, Vermont 1
AMHERST, Mass. – The tenth-ranked UMass Minutemen scored three first period power play goals and held off a third period comeback bid by the Catamounts to secure their fourth win of the season Sunday night at the Mullins Center in Hockey East action. With the win UMass improved to 4-3-1 on the season while Vermont fell to 0-2-0.  
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score (.pdf)
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"We felt the first weekend was a good start for us," said Head Coach Todd Woodcroft. "We are starting a journey together as a team and needed a starting point. It was very good for us to play against a team with seven games under their belt and nationally ranked because it shows us the standard we need to play at."
 
"There were some pieces of our game that we were very happy about," continued Woodcroft. "First and foremost, Tyler Harmon was a star this weekend. He was calm, confident and poised. Our specialty teams are an area that we need to work on and that is hard to do in regular practice, we need game situations and we got them in spades this weekend. But for a large part of today's game and even the weekend, we felt comfortable as a coaching staff that there are good pieces. Now we have to put them together, again and again."

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Minutemen opened the scoring 6:39 into the first period on the power play. Carson Gicewicz had three attempts at a rebound in front of Harmon and his third attempt found the back of the net marking the first power play tally of the two-game series.
• UMass converted two more times on the power play 69 seconds apart at the end of the first period. Josh Lopina scored during a 5-on-3 advantage with 1:44 left in the first period and Matthew Kessel put away his third goal of the season with 35 seconds left in the frame.
• Harmon made 10 saves for the Catamounts in the second period giving the Catamounts a chance at the comeback in the final frame.
• Starting the third with 1:56 on the power play the Catamounts cashed in. Alex Esposito fired a quick snap shot past UMass' Matt Murray for his first of the season with eight seconds left on their advantage. William Lemay and Harmon picked up assists on the play.
• The Catamounts pushed for another but couldn't solve Murray again. With 2:52 left in the game Gicewicz struck again, to put the game out of reach. From the point Aaron Bohlinger skated into the slot and found Gicewicz back door for his third goal of the season.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Senior defenseman Owen Grant played his 100th game for the Catamounts Sunday evening.
• Tyler Harmon's third period assist was the Catamounts first point by a goalie since Brody Hoffman on March 15, 2014 against UMass Lowell in the Hockey East semifinals.
• Bryce Misley led all skaters with 13 faceoff wins Sunday evening.
• Mickey Burns and Christian Evers were tied for the team lead with three shots Sunday. 

WHO'S NEXT
The Catamounts are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, December 26 at 6 p.m. as they host No. 12 Northeastern for a two-game set. Fans can watch live for free on CBS CollegeSportsLive. Fans can also listen to the contest on WVMT AM 620/96.3 FM with Michael Lehr on the call.
 
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the 2020-21 men's hockey season